Plan of Evanston
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Park would become the western terminus of the City Center and be visible from Orrington Avenue. A fountain in the center of Railroad Park would be balanced by another fountain in Commercial Park, and the two parks and Mall would thus be tied together.
Fountain Square Park, with its beautiful elms and its fountain should be preserved, but we feel it could be made practical if the fountain were moved some feet to the east, in order to permit straightening the street car tracks, and eliminate the sweeping curve which has been a menace for so many years; the space around the fountain when relocated would be treated with grass and a circular walk, to serve as a much needed safety island for the heart of the city. This little park would also serve to direct traffic, and prevent the cross-cutting of vehicles, which is always dangerous and confusing. A second safety island and underground comfort station is suggested contiguous to the surface trolley tracks, on Sherman Avenue just south of Davis Street.
The parks contained in the City Center, besides their obvious functions of providing rest and recreation, would serve as invaluable landscape settings for the public buildings. Of these buildings, the first in importance is the present City Hall, facing the public Mall to the north, with Sherman Avenue to the east and Davis Street to the south. The second, the present Post Office, occupies a similar situation, flanking the Mall to the north and having Sherman Avenue to the east and Church Street on the north side. When the time comes that a new fire engine house, police station, and municipal building are required, they should be drawn into the civic group and located on the east side of Commercial Park on Orrington Avenue. This building group would be a fitting terminus for the eastern vista through the Mall.
Among the new buildings which will be required as Evanston grows in size and metropolitan dignity the most probable are an Auditorium and a Museum. Under the "Coliseum Act" of the Illinois legislature any town or city may issue
